Council tenants ask to pay 29p a week extra

Thousands of people who are tenants of Norwich City Council have been sent letters informing them that if they want to continue watching television after the analogue signal is turned off in 2011, they are going to have to pay 29p per week more on their rent or service charge.

The council have hundreds of apartment blocks and other council properties which use a communal aerial to receive the analogue signal and then feed onto the council properties. In total it is estimated that there are ten thousand families who will be affected by this change.

The council has presented them all with various proposals, but would appear to have had only two hundred responses. This has left the city council with no other option but to go ahead and change the aerials for an integrated reception system. This would mean that anyone with a set top box or a digital television would only have to plug it in and they would receive digital television.

However, now the council have decided to go down this route, there have been quite a few complaints about the way that the council have gone about dealing with the digital switchover. Clearly this is going to be a major problem for all councils as the switchover works its way around the country.

Story link: Council tenants ask to pay 29p a week extra